Celebrities and their “beefing” tendencies have not been new to the public eye. Many like to dig into quarrels like Britney Spears vs Justin Timberlake or Nicki Minaj vs Megan Thee Stallion. However, a new celebrity brawl has arisen, and the media and public are all over it.
Beef between rappers traditionally plays out over extended periods, but that isn’t the case for this feud. After over a decade-long fight, Drake dropped two diss tracks and jumped in front of Kendrick Lamar’s first drop with a third, containing the bite of “Push Ups.” Lamar soon after released “Euphoria,” and nothing was the same after that. “Push Ups” and “Family Matters” are pretty catchy songs and will probably end up on many playlists, but Drake just didn’t have as much to say about Lamar as vice versa.
According to Rolling Stone, through Lamar’s diss tracks, he rapped about Drake’s racial identity issues, his alleged vices, his lack of street smarts, his shady behind-the-scenes tactics, his transactional relationships in Atlanta, his alliance with Baka, leaks in his OVO camp, and most alarmingly, his alleged inappropriate engagements with teenage girls.
Not too long after, Drake stepped out to quickly deny Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams” accusation that he had an 11-year-old daughter that he hid from the world. But it wasn’t until “Not Like Us” went viral for him to finally speak up about the nature of his alleged relationships with young girls.
However, through all this back and forth, it almost felt like Drake’s brainpower was focused on winning the social media battle, while Lamar was in his Pepe Silvia era, figuring out how to make his disses as intentional as possible, according to Rolling Stone.
Lamar’s actions aren’t unusual though. Joe Budden dropped four disses against Drake within a four-week period in the summer of 2016, but at that point, Drake had not gathered a lot of backlash, and Budden wasn’t popular enough to get people to revolt.
With all of Lamar’s hits, he definitely laid out the notion of Drake carrying transactional relationships with black music even better than Pusha T did only a few years earlier. He had rhymed “You’re not a colleague, you’re a colonizer,” a one-liner that definitely packs a punch.
Most diss songs that are produced don’t end up leading to broader social commentary, but Lamar isn’t like most other artists. Just like Nas’ “Ether,” where his hatred towards Jay-Z bubbled over into a scathing insult track, most artists knew not to get him that angry again, and the same thing will go for Lamar. He has been known for taking years between each album, but in just one week, he increased his legacy as one of the most respected lyricists of all time, according to Rolling Stone.
The so-called “Big Three” are all trying to find a way to leave the music industry behind. According to X account, Jah Talks Music, J. Cole is retiring after “The Fall Off,” Drake said he’s thinking about taking a “graceful exit,” and Lamar is deciding to choose himself over his music. This may soon be the end of these three 2010s legends, but “First Person Shooter” had pushed the Big Three from a past-tense convo into the biggest celebrity brawl happening in pop culture in the present.
